The Werewolf Affair [DeWitt's Pack 14] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (15 page)

Phillip inhaled a deep breath. His heart was thumping something wild inside of his chest, but he felt like he was ripping something out of himself, something that had been festering inside of him for so long now. He knew he would be better, healthier, and happier without it.

“I love you, but I love him now, and I want the rest of my life to be with him, but I won’t forget you either. I want you to know that. I also want you to know that I’m sorry for what I’ve done to our son. That’s what you’re really still here for, isn’t it? I abandoned Sammy to go on my own little guilt trip, and nearly went wild, and now he barely knows I’m his father, or about his mother. I won’t do that again. I will take good care of him. He will always be able to rely on me, and so will you. I’ll keep our boy safe. You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Like what happened the first time he came here and realized that not only was the pond some sort of spiritual healing place, but also mostly haunted as well, the water seemed to glow.

It was brighter than before. The clear blue flashed as though there were a hundred spotlights turning on from beneath the surface of the water. Phillip had to raise his hand to cover his eyes against the light.

It didn’t dim down, and he could barely see, but he did see the shadow that appeared in front of him.

No, not a shadow. It had a shape and features, soft with kind eyes, but the light, God, the light was so bright he could barely make out more than that.

“Helen?”

Gentle hands touched his wrist, pulling his hand away from his eyes. He had to squint against the light, but he could still barely make out the face in front of his.

There was no scent to the ghost, only touch and what little sight he had left.

She seemed to be smiling at him.

Relief crashed through him like a wave, and the weight he hadn’t known he’d been carrying on his back vanished, making him feel lighter, taller, and more in control of himself.

Those ghostly fingers kept their touch light on his arms, and they traveled up and up, flickering past his shoulders and up his neck until they were on his cheeks.

Helen brought his face down, and for the first time since before she’d died, he felt the sensation of her lips against his.

It was their good-bye kiss. It was chaste, it made his heart ache, but it didn’t make him yearn for anything more.

The light suddenly vanished, as quickly as though someone had flicked off a switch, and with the light also went Helen.

Phillip tried to open his eyes, but bright flashes were still blinding him. He blinked several times and then rubbed his face, but that didn’t exactly help.

All he knew for sure was that she was gone. He was entirely alone in front of the pond. Helen had moved on.

Phillip stumbled around blindly for a minute, trying to find his way back, but the spots in front of his eyes were persistent.

A hand grabbed him by the elbow, and he tried to shove it away until the voice of the omega he’d come with spoke to him.

“Sir? Are you all right? I saw you struggling to walk.”

Didn’t he see that bright light? He couldn’t have gone that far away.

“I’m fine. It’s just, I’m waiting for the spots to go away.”

“Spots?”

“Didn’t you see that light?”

The omega hesitated for a second, and it was then that Phillip realized that the light had only been visible to himself.

“I’ll take you back home to rest, sir. You’re still healing.”

Phillip really didn’t think he was.

* * * *

He was going to go stir crazy just staying in his room, drinking more of that water and taking meds for the headaches that seemed to come and go.

He wished again and again to go and see Trevor, to stay by his bedside, but Old Maggie had been adamant that rest was good for him, too.

At least Sammy was always available. His smile made Phillip brighten up, and he enjoyed playing with his toys with him. Phillip read him a bedtime story for the first time in a long time. Sammy was more interested in the bright colors of the pictures, but he was a good boy who stayed mostly seated on his lap the entire time.

The worried look on Corey’s face when it came time for them to put the boy down for the night didn’t go unnoticed by Phillip, or by Corey’s mate, it seemed.

James watched Corey, holding the boy in his arms, walk out of the room and toward Sammy’s nursery.

Phillip felt a lump of guilt lodge in his stomach. He was still on his bed, sitting above the covers since his stumbling around near the pond had been reported. He wasn’t allowed to do much walking lately. “He’s very attached, isn’t he?”

James looked at him, and then he smiled a little sadly. “Yes. I’m pretty sure you know we’ll never be able to have children, and adoption is unlikely, and when your pup was dropped in our lap…”

Phillip winced. “I’m sorry about that.”

James shook his head. “Don’t be. I didn’t mean it like that, but yes, Corey is attached to him. I tried to tell him not to get too close, that you would eventually be coming back for the boy.”

James looked him up and down, and he seemed to know without even asking for the details on the matter. “I guess that’s going to be soon?”

Phillip nodded. “Yeah. I’ll always be grateful to the both of you, though. He looks happy and healthy. That’s better than what I’ve done.”

James nodded gruffly. He folded his arms and turned away. “Trevor will make an excellent partner for you to raise him with. He was always good with Sammy whenever the two were near each other. You’re very lucky.”

Phillip was very lucky. He would also have to be blind not to see that, despite what James had just told him about warning Corey against becoming attached, James had attached himself to the pup as well without intending it.

There was nothing Phillip could do about that. Sammy was his pup, and once Phillip was back on his feet, he was going to start raising him again.

Corey came back into the room. The forced smile on his face was obvious as he took hold of James’s much larger hand.

“He’s down for the night. I’m kind of tired, though. Was wondering if you would turn in early with me?”

Phillip couldn’t let them be tortured like this. Not after what they had done for him.

“Actually, Corey, James, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you both.”

They looked at him. Corey’s face was the most concerned, and fearful. It was almost like the poor guy expected Phillip to deny him access to Sammy ever again after this.

He felt awkward having to make this sort of declaration while he was lying in bed and they were standing, but there was nothing that could be done for it, was there? “Listen, you both have done something so amazing for me. I can’t ever repay you for watching over my son.”

He cleared his throat, the emotions of how terrible a father he’d been lately catching up with him. “You both know that most werewolves don’t really have any families, and the ones they do are the ones they made. Helen and I were no different. We neither had any parents or siblings to turn to, and if neither of you would have taken care of my son, I don’t know what would’ve happened to him. I was hoping that you would both want to take over the role as his godparents, should anything else happen to either myself or Trevor.”

Phillip watched their expressions closely, and judging by the way James smiled and Corey hugged him, he was willing to bet that the answer was a firm yes.

He waited for Corey and James to leave his room and then for the last med call for the night. Phillip took his pain pills and drank the water from the spiritual pond, though he was pretty sure the water had done for him all that it was going to at this point.

He waited for the house to settle after that and for the noises in the other rooms to die down with sleep.

It took a particularly long time before Corey and James’s hearts slowed down to a normal sleeping pattern. Phillip could imagine why, but he wasn’t going to.

At around one in the morning, he decided to make his escape.

It was much more difficult than most people thought it would be, getting out of a werewolf house unnoticed.

To do something like that required making almost no noise whatsoever, especially in a house where even the slightest creak in the floorboards in the middle of the night could wake the occupants and have them out of their rooms and in attack mode.

He didn’t take the conventional route. He walked to his window, as silently as he could, and opened it.

If anyone in the house heard the noise, small as it was, they would likely think that Phillip was merely getting some fresh air. The nights were getting warmer now.

He sat on the windowsill and had to lift his legs to get them up and over. It was pathetic, but it worked. He was outside and walking, limping, with the most determination he’d ever had toward Trevor’s cabin.

He would be spending the night with his lover, and he was going to do it either in that little uncomfortable chair beside his bed, or, if he could somehow manage to wake the man this time, perhaps crawl in with him and sleep like that.

This was happening. He had to make sure Trevor knew and that he believed him.

Once again, Phillip had to use the window, but this time he had to be extra silent about it. No one inside would assume that Trevor was getting up to have some fresh air, not when he was still in bed.

There were no bars over these windows. There were bars over some of the windows in the pack, but that was only to help keep out intruders. It was discovered quickly that such a thing barely helped at all when the intruders were wild werewolves, so James had ordered the bars to be removed, and all new rooms and houses that were being built were not to have them.

That was good news for him.

He’d just gotten his fingers under the wooden frame of the window and was slowly starting to slide it up when it shot up faster than he had anticipated, and his heart lurched into his throat at the shadow he saw there.

“Phillip?”

Trevor’s voice. It was raspy and low, but it was there.

He stood stupidly for a minute, his brain digesting what he was seeing. He sputtered when he finally spoke.

“You’re awake.”

Trevor leaned out the window a bit, the light of the moon illuminating his features. Shadows were under his eyes, deep ones with matching bags. If he was awake, it was because he’d woken up recently, it seemed.

“Why are you at the window?” Trevor asked, a frown on his face as he was no doubt thinking of what could possibly bring his lover to that spot at this time of night.

“I was coming to see you. To sit with you,” Phillip said, feeling utterly stupid.

Trevor’s mouth was so close, he really couldn’t help himself. Phillip’s hands seemed to move of their own accord as he reached up and took hold of Trevor’s face. The beard was still there, and it still scratched against his mouth when Phillip kissed him.

Trevor’s lips were chapped and rough, and his mouth had the sort of taste that came with morning breath.

Phillip couldn’t force himself to pull away from the sweetness of it. Their kiss deepened, and their tongues touched, reintroducing themselves to each other. Phillip’s heart was pumping, and he could hear Trevor’s doing the same, and he could smell the man’s lust.

He pulled away right then, and only because he wasn’t sure if he should be encouraging that sort of reaction out of him after he’d woken up from nearly a week-long sleep.

That didn’t mean that Phillip removed his hands. “How are you feeling?”

Trevor smiled at him. “Kind of like shit. I’m starving, and my body feels like it was run over with a bus, but otherwise I think I’m doing okay.”

Phillip snickered a little, and he stroked his thumbs across the softness of Trevor’s skin, as well as the scratchiness of his beard. “You’ll be happy to know that your good looks are intact.”

Trevor grinned at him, and then, with the sort of strength Phillip didn’t think he possessed, Trevor reached his arms out to grab hold of Phillip, and then he started to pull him through the window.

Phillip helped as much as he could, he wanted to get in there as much as anyone, but by the time he made it through, they’d both fallen on the floor in a tangle of sweating limbs and smiles.

Phillip kissed his mate again, and together they helped each other up.

“All your wounds were internal. You’re lucky to be alive,” Phillip said.

Trevor eased himself back under his blankets with a groan. “I remember you not looking so great yourself.”

Phillip didn’t even want to think about how horrible it was watching Luke smashing his whole body down on top of Trevor’s and then watching how Trevor didn’t get up again after that.

“I’m guessing that because I’m here, and nothing looks torn to shreds, that we got him?” Trevor asked, and Phillip helped to tuck the blankets in around his legs.

“Yeah. James filled me in earlier,” Phillip said. “They took the body out farther away from pack land. I guess they’re hoping that if hunters were tracking Luke, then they would find the body father away and not come so close to Brampton.”